And now the Pluto station to Retrograde for the United Kingdom…

With Leo rising, the Sun rules the Pluto SRx chart from its 9th house conjunction to Mercury Rx. Neither it nor Mars are really at the apex of the chart although I’d be inclined to give the Sun-Mercury Rx conjunction the edge since the Sun and the MC are 12°47 apart at their closest points as compared to Mars at 15°58 from the MC. Almost isn’t enough to do it. Now while the difference isn’t a major one, I much prefer the Sun’s presence at the apex over thoughts of Mars there. Mars could present too much of an aggressive air instead of the more genteel Sun-Mercury communications approach especially with that Western, 3rd quadrant, above-the-horizon dominance. The willingness to talk it out in the effort to ensure continuing positive relationships appears to be clear here.

At this point I have to tell you much of the delay in my still not having completed this article was related to the stunning lineup of events that had put my site down for so long. I’ve felt quite overwhelmed with so many graphics missing, and I’ve been trying to wrap my head around which to do first. For this particular article, the worst of the feelings of being so overwhelmed fell with the charts for the UK. I was missing several and had to go back through my computer files–now split between my desktop, CDs and DVDs I’ve burned and the external hard drive to which I’ve moved still others. The task felt downright daunting.

To make matters worse, about three months of articles are missing from my site altogether, and I still have to retrace those steps! (None of this was any one individual’s fault, and none from the site team at all. Long story short, the domain moved overseas and they wiped out the graphics before doing so! We had no time to think. Now it’s a matter of picking up the pieces and hopefully finding those missing articles too.)

Meanwhile, trying to work with what’s missing and sometimes needed as back up reference is like dropping a ring down the pipes and you know it’s there. You just can’t find it–yet. You end up afraid to flush any water through the pipes at that point either!

When I finally got my thoughts together about which of the UK charts to use with this article (each has a distinct purpose), several days had passed since I began to write this, and Buckingham Palace’s May 4 announcement about Prince Philip’s retirement from public duties potentially shifted the focus yet again. The Pluto SRx chart had given me inklings, but I hadn’t done any Solar Returns for the United Kingdom and had missed who and what–and how things would play out. On the other hand, the announcement did make me realize which of the charts I needed to use. While I had used the 1922 chart for Brexit, this one demanded my use of the 1801 chart.

I smiled as soon as I saw this pairing with so many triggers standing out ever so clearly. The most obvious trigger appeared with Pluto’s 2-minute partile opposition to the UK 1801 Moon at the apex of the chart in the 10th. While I knew the Queen was behind this announcement, of course, I still don’t follow enough of the UK’s political structure and protocol with royalty to know the fine tuning. For me, it becomes a matter of Abbott and Costello’s “who’s on first” at that point. (These reruns have seemed to reappear through the years so many times, but surely this one is the all-time classic!)

Mars in the 1801 chart forms a conjunction to the Pluto SRx chart’s MC in opposition to the 4th house placement of 1801 Neptune and in square to the Pluto SRx 6th house Moon. Meanwhile, the 1801 chart’s Saturn forms a 12th house conjunction to the Pluto SRx chart’s Ascendant! The Pluto SRx Sun/Mercury semisextile to Mars resolves at 14 Scorpio 45 just beyond a partile aspect opposition to the Pluto SRx chart’s MC and still tightly opposed to the 1801 Mars. While the semisextile between the Sun and Venus is a bit wide at about 2°35′ of additional orb, it’s worth considering in this case since there’s been an ongoing undecaquartisextile pattern here too. This semisextile resolves in a Resonant Blooming Undecaquartisextile at 14 Libra 01, establishing a 3-minute partile conjunction to the South Node of the 1801 chart. For that matter, it can also play a role in establishing the conjunction to Jupiter with a 2°39′ orb.

But the subsequent resonant points (14 Libra 01 and 14 Scorpio 45) are semisextile, so we have a third undecaquartisextile pattern that resolves at last at 29 Aries 23, establishing a 45-minute partile out-of-sign conjunction to Mercury and a conjunction with a 1°14′ orb to the Sun. I initially had noted house positions when writing this but have elected to remove them since I have worked back and forth with the charts, one inside the other and then reversed.

From the Pluto Rx partile opposition to the 1801 Moon, I knew this had to be the Queen where the 1801 Moon–when that chart is inside–was so close to the MC (it’s not always that easy, of course!). The Palace had already said this was neither about death nor about abdication, and everyone in the staff was being notified. My immediate reaction when the announcement of the pending news was perhaps something related to the late Princess Diana since US news–and I would imagine UK news as well–had been discussing in positive ways Prince Harry’s struggles with mental health issues since Princess Diana’s death. It didn’t quite fit in my own mind; but then I couldn’t be sure: I wasn’t, after all, a British citizen.

After I had thought I was done with this article and was already in the midst of posting today, another undecaquartisextile pattern stuck out at me when I had placed the Pluto SRx chart inside the 1801 chart. Why I hadn’t noticed this before is simply beyond me; but then we don’t always see every pattern in the charts. Sometimes, it takes just one more look to spot what should be so obvious. In fact, it was right in front of me and I couldn’t see it! This morning, it popped out at me and I realized the critical importance of this one.

This particular pattern may well be the most important one in the Pluto chart for the UK because it points to Prince Philip’s retirement and its timing. The Moon at 13 Aquarius 27 and Neptune at 13 Pisces 25, placed in this chart for the United Kingdom on either side of the Descendant suddenly popped out at me! The resonant point for the Resonant Blooming Undecaquartisextile falls at 28 Leo 26, establishing a 27-minute partile first house conjunction to the upcoming Solar Eclipse at 28 Leo 53 on August 21, in square to Mars in Taurus in the Pluto SRx chart!

When I first heard the news from Buckingham Palace, they had said the retirement would take place in the autumn. I hadn’t been surprised but thought it was likely to take place closer to the eclipse. I don’t have a time of birth for Prince Philip, but it seems more likely that he would retire closer to the eclipse than in the autumn, a month later.

But now as I look closer at the chart (and I concede that this is not anything more than a post-event analysis versus my having looked at the other charts before the fact), the pointers to the Sun are so apparent. The Sun would indeed represent Prince Philip. Yet it seemed a bit odd to me that 1801 might talk about the monarchy–except that we weren’t really looking at the monarchy itself. We were looking at what is generally known as the Queen’s consort, Prince Philip, so perhaps the 1801 chart works in this case as John Davenport had indicated: “offers the UK’s relationship to the world via foreign policy and British politics in contrast to what might be seen as the UK’s heartbeat in the 1922 chart.” (graphics still missing in the linked article)

In some ways, of course, Prince Philip would have some sway in foreign policy in the sense of his being a sort of diplomat who can easily cross boundaries without too much of a challenge. For me, this made total logic. After all, Prince Philip and the Queen are married and have a family. Of course the Sun would represent her husband then! And to the world beyond, the clearly angular positions of these UQSXTs would point to changes of some kind in the royal family.

The timing of Prince Philip’s retirement from public duties, on the other hand, had not surprised me at all, and I had made that quite clear in noting that Mars in the Pluto SRx chart forms a 29-minute partile square to the 28 Leo 53 Solar Eclipse of August 21, just four days before Saturn moves to Stationary Direct position. Saturn also symbolizes a male. I felt the event we were discussing was likely to be after that eclipse. And so it is! The announcement then stated his retirement would take place during the autumn. I’m sure as well that he’s likely to be honored for his service to the Queen, to the nation, and to the world. Saturn not only represents the male–often an older one–but the symbol of our being honored for work well done–or demoted for the shortcuts one has taken.

There’s still much to do on the site to get it back to full speed, up and running. But if all is well, I’ll have the newsletter back out too within the next few days–barring any more unforeseen circumstances, of course! At times, it seems like that’s my middle name these days.